Following the LSU Tigers’ 102-85 victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes in the NCAA women’s basketball championship game Sunday, there’s been a lot of discussion about LSU star Angel Reese in particular. Reese’s “You can’t see me” move towards Iowa’s Caitlin Clark in the waning seconds of that game launched a million takes, with some calling it “classless” but others noting Clark’s previous similar celebrations and questioning the double standard of criticizing Reese and not Clark. And Clark wound up offering support for Reese as well.
Politics has also entered into the conversation around Reese and LSU, specifically around the often-seen White House visit for champion teams. That started with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, who was in attendance at that game, initially saying she wanted both Iowa and LSU to visit the White House. Reese mocked that on Twitter and on the I Am Athlete podcast, and echoed teammate Alex Morris’ comments of preferring to visit former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama rather than the Bidens.
Biden eventually backed off her initial comments and spelled out that the White House would invite LSU alone, and LSU put out a statement that the team would “certainly” accept an invitation if one was offered. That doesn’t mean everyone involved would attend, though. The last decade-plus has seen quite a few athletes skip White House visits for a variety of political reasons, from Tim Thomas through Lindsey Vonn to multiple Philadelphia Eagles players in 2018 (which led to the whole team’s invitation being pulled). But Reese told ESPN’s Randy Scott on SportsCenter Friday that while she and her teammates were “hurt” by Biden’s comments, she will attend a White House trip:
"I'm a team player, I'm gonna do what's best for the team." @Reese10Angel confirms she'll join LSU at the White House.
(via @RandyScottESPN) pic.twitter.com/aY89aL6VS2
— ESPN (@espn) April 7, 2023
The key lines there from Reese are “It was emotional for us, because we know how hard we worked all year for everything. Just being able to see that, that hurt us in the moment. But just going back on that, you don’t get that experience ever. So being able to go back, I know my team wants to do that for sure, and my coach is supportive of that, and I’m going to do what’s best for the team. They would like to go, and we decided we’re going to go, we’re going to go. It was tough just seeing that in the beginning, but we’re all going to come together, and it will be good.”
No date has yet been set for this proposed White House visit for Reese and the Tigers. But it will certainly be heavily-watched whenever it does happen given all the discussion leading up to it.
[ESPN on Twitter; photo of Reese after the title game from Kevin Jairaj/USA Today Sports]
